“Amanda. Sam, as you know I am writing a news story and I would like to hear your side of it. I have been informed that you were in the thick of it as they say!”

“It happened over fifty years ago. Is there anyone interested in such an old case?”

“Oh I think so, that’s why I came to you to find out the inside story.”

“Well as I said it happened a long time ago, before you were born, the world was a different place than it is today.”

“What was it like?

“How do I describe it? I suppose it was a turning point in history.”

“I don’t follow?”

“A few decades before the case the world had just made the 2nd millennium and it seemed that terrorism was rising and oil reserves were running out fast, consumerism was rising as well as the population. No one knew where the world was heading except that in the fairly near future major countries would probably start competing for the remaining resources, with force. It had already started with the 2nd Gulf War in 2003 by the Americans and British and the squabble for the Iraqi oil fields.”

“What has the state of the world to do with the case?”

“I believe everything, if the attitude of the major world powers of the time had not been so focused on oil they would not have let Daniel Sooner slip through their fingers.”

“What has Daniel Sooner got to do with this?”

“Daniel Sooner, I believe was the point on which history turned. It was he that has led us directly to where we are today and the reason for the case to which you are interested.”

“Please could you explain that to me?”

“Okay, a brief history of the early twenty first century. In the first decade of the 21st century Daniel had developed a remote controlled craft with cameras, which the military could use on the battlefield for reconnaissance, pinpoint bombing and more importantly could be used to intercept incoming missiles of all types with almost 100% success thus reducing the effect of intercontinental ballistic missiles. The pilot on the ground could fly the small remote controlled craft loaded with explosives directly to the target, be it a bunker or ballistic missile. Daniel showed his development to the British government in 2007 who then developed his idea but refused to give him any credit or more importantly money. Angry and disillusioned and nearly broke, he moved to Spain and while he was there he discovered how to manipulate gravity in 2011 the year after I was born. You probably learned the basics a college?”

“Err yes, something about waves and projectors?

“Yeah, I don’t understand the scientific principles but it is all to do with waves. He discovered the wave length that gravity worked on and was able to build a projector which could duplicate these waves to increase or negate gravity.”

“What has this to do with anything?”

“Patience, the political and technological society we live today is directly linked to his discovery. Daniel had discovered “anti gravity” a way to manipulate gravity. He had great vision and quickly realised that if he released his discovery to Britain it would either, be buried by the oil controlled parties in the government, or it would be stolen from him and the development probably focused for military purposes.

He tinkered with his discovery while he pondered the best way to proceed. His decision eventually rearranged the political map of the world to what we have today. Daniel realised he need some form of “western style democratic” government support and the only viable states were Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Unfortunately individually they would be probably at prey of the larger nations and commercial interest groups so he figured that together he would have a group big enough to stand up the rest of the world but also with three governments no one government could steal the project from the others.

The three governments sent representatives in 2013 to view Daniels discovery and were shown the first working prototype anti-grav car and a room in which they were subjected to zero gravity and 2 gravities. As you can guess they were drooling to get hold of this technology and at first believed they were to bid for the technology. Daniel explained his plan that all three governments were to have equal share of it with himself as project director. After much wrangling an agreement was made and the following year the project was transferred to the present site of Mushroom Space Research Centre, which got its official name in 2015. Though at the time there was nothing there except an old iron ore mine.

Within a few years the base held around a thousand personnel and they had developed the project to having efficient anti-grav cells and power supply systems. These were then used to adapt cars, trucks and aircraft. They also had plans for spacecraft of which there was one prototype saucer shaped craft. Daniel and the three governments then embarked on the Aurora Space Station Project in 2017. For five years the project was kept quiet and it was only when the CIA and other intelligence agencies began getting reports about Project Mushroom, the base on South Island in New Zealand was it decided to reveal the project and technological advances. They did this in 2022 after a great deal of planning much of it had been laid down through the last five years as they knew they would have to reveal it sooner or later.

The triumvirate of governments had been in negotiation with certain manufacturing companies, which were limited to their own countries. These companies were given franchises to build projectors and various derivative products, which used the anti-grav device such as car manufactures, shipping and the air industry. They were ready to go into production immediately when the Aurora Project was revealed and sold their products worldwide though initially the rest of the western world would not import them. The local markets though boomed and with in a few years 37% of the driving Canadian, Australian and New Zealand public owned an Anti-grav car. Of course other countries imported or took manufacturing franchises for the AG vehicles and the manufacture of these cars was soon competing with the petrol and diesel engine vehicles.”

“You mentioned Project Aurora, how come this was not spotted during it construction phase?”

“Another by product of the gravity projector was a force screen, scientists were able to develop a projector which allowed the station to be hidden from any sky watcher. It was not perfect but the number people studying the sky where the station was being constructed was fairly small and the majority were funded by one of the three governments just to reduce the risk. The biggest problem was the movement of spacecraft from South Island through the atmosphere to the station and back. They used similar stealth systems and by manipulating gravity were able to fly through the atmosphere without causing any major disturbances, which could easily be noticed by other sky watching countries. It was also one reason why they were based so far south in the southern hemisphere.”

“So The Triumvirate and Daniel Sooner had control of anti gravity production. What did the rest of the worlds governments do?”

“There was not a huge amount they could do, well not openly. Some put embargoes on trade, others demanded the technology and even a few went into political dealings for trade and manufacturing rights. The big countries, the USA, Britain, France, Germany and the rest of Europe, Russia, China and some South East Asian countries attempted to put pressure on the Triumvirate, politically and from the shadows. The increase in covert activity on South Island caused a many deaths. Most of those were agents of foreign powers as they tried to infiltrate Mushroom base. The USA also demanded that the Triumvirate provide transport to the Moon where the USA would build a base.

To reduce the spy activity and divert any military build up from these foreign powers Daniel called another conference in the United Nations building in New York. The first one had been to reveal the Space Station. In the second conference of 2023 Daniel laid down a plan to give the Americans what they wanted but allowing the Triumvirate to pull the strings. A number of nations had jumped on the bandwagon demanding a base on the moon so the plan put forward was for United City. This was a massive city to be built on the moon. The city was to be built as a circle, the centre would be the spaceport controlled by the Triumvirate with a large surrounding zone. Around this on the circumference each country would get a truncated pie shaped slice to control as if it were a part of their country on Earth. All they had to do was pay for the construction work. What these countries had not realised at the time was that with the near completion of Aurora there were thousands of construction works and other personnel about to become unemployed. Through a bit of slight of hand the Triumvirate was able to build United City and be paid for its construction this began in 2024. The increase in employment also meant a huge influx of workers into space from every country in the world. Every single one of them working and living under the law of the Triumvirate. By 2030 approximately 50,000 workers were employed outside the Earth atmosphere.

United City completed in 2034 solved some problems but only incensed other interest groups especially they religious ones. They demanded they should have part of the city, but Daniel had figured them into his plan and reminded them that space habitats would be cheaper and more suitable to they plans. Thus a number of space habitats were put into orbit, the building of Habitat One began in 2025, and construction funded by various religious or special interest groups. Others were begun in 2027. To provide the materials for all these projects Daniels’ other major project was a massive mining and manufacturing habitat built in earth orbit started in 2023 and then moved to the asteroid belt in 2026 to harvest the rich resources of the belt, which were shipped back to Aurora in a fleet of freight spacecraft.

One more project should be mentioned, the Generation Mission. One of those special interest groups paid for the construction of an interplanetary spacecraft in 2030 to hold twenty thousand souls to take them on a journey, which could take up to a two hundred years. By 2035 it had become an American and CANZie propaganda project. They were using it to promote the further expansion and exploration of space. Numerous projects were flying around, mores cities on the moon, the colonisation of Mars and massive habitats sailing the solar system. The Traveller set sail in 2036 causing the biggest news event since the completion of United City. It was the projection of this project as first and leading move into the solar system, which was a major core part of the case.”

“Well, thanks for the history lesson, but if the Generation Mission was the centre of the case why was it called the Aurora Affair?”

“Ha, yes! At the beginning of the case everything seemed to go through Aurora Station so when it became a major case the central theme seemed to be Aurora. So as you can see the file name was put on and it stuck. Actually it also helped to divert inquisitive attention away from some sensitive issues and people at the time.”

“Oh I get it. So why are you allowed to talk to me now?”

“Time, the passage of time Amanda. People die and new priorities arise. The public focuses on new dreams.”

“I understand the fact that people die and that would allow information to be released but what has the public and dreams to do with it.”

”The New Dream, you know what I am talking about. It is the name of the first interstellar spaceship that will be capable of travelling at speed faster than light. It is about to be launched. The galaxy is finally open to the human race. The dream is now a reality, we will be able to go out and colonise the galaxy. The dominion of the human race has begun. The story I am about to tell you is history and will not affect the new future we are about embark upon. Everything that happen fifty years ago was a prelude to The New Dream.”

“You mean full disclosure of the Aurora Affair fifty years ago would have prevented The New Dream?”

“I believe it would certainly have meant maybe another fifty years or more before a ship similar to The New Dream would have been built. Let me tell you the story.”

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